23일자 코리아타임스 문화면에 '일러스트 시인' 김수자의 전시회에 대한 기사가 실려 옮겨
둡니다. '나의 아름다운 정원'이라는 제목의 이 전시에 출품된 작품들이 보여주는 여성적 섬세함과
따스함, 그리고 작가의 품성을 그대로 반영한 겸손함을 짚어낸 기사가 작품들 못지 않게 아름답습니다.
기사에 곁들여진 기와집은 도자기로 구운 작품이며 어린 시절 작가의 집을 닮았다고 합니다.
전시는 29일까지 청담동 온리 갤러리에서 계속됩니다. 지하철 7호선 청담역 12번 출구 씨즐러
바로 뒤에 있는 아담한 갤러리입니다.
| Feminine modesty in painted stories | |
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Kim Soo-ja's "The House" (2011) |
By Kwaak Je-yup
With not one but two hugely-successful artists who share her name, one would not fault painter and children’s book illustrator Kim Soo-ja for feeling extra pressure to produce something spectacular.
Yet “My Beautiful Garden: Where little, small beings sing night and day” at only Gallery in Cheongdam-dong, southern Seoul, is charmingly indifferent to comparisons; it is an intensely intimate, self-referenced affair that deserves attention on its own merit.
Her fifth solo exhibition features over 20 paintings, collages, and other works on canvas and in ceramics.
It is a peek into her appreciation of modest memories and beauty, said to be inspired by an old pile of lace her mother recently gave her. Words like sophistication or style become meaningless in the warmth of her works.
Along the same lines, her previous paintings’ vivid, contrasted colors are tamed — muted, even. They recall instead the pale hues on Korean traditional paintings, whose familiar tints discreetly draw the local audience into her inner circle.
Each painting seems to recall a piece of her memory, feminine in nature: patterned lace “reminiscent of that made by her mother,” a table setting with a rice-filled bowl, a spoon, a pair of chopsticks, pink-tinted flowers.
Each square on Korean manuscript paper, a recurrent theme in her previous and current works and often a symbol of nostalgia for writers, represents “windows and doors” into her story, her house and her life.
For some 30 years, Kim has worked as an illustrator for children’s books and as a painter. Her past shows were praised for her moderated, simple approach and the particular warmth in her paintings.
“My Beautiful Garden” marks her first departure outside the traditional Insa-dong gallery scene.
The exhibition runs through June 29. Call (02) 548-3692 or visit blog.naver.com/onlydesign for more information. | |